Search for a New Spirit

Henry Kissinger was on the wing again, with another of those exotic itineraries: Bangkok, Vientiane, Hanoi, Hong Kong and Peking. Flying with him were U.S. hopes for an imminent cease-fire in Laos, for a gradual end to the Cambodia fighting and for new assurances that the settlement in Viet Nam will stick. The sensitive mission may also help define the still-emerging triangular relationship among long-estranged and still uneasy powers: the U.S., the U.S.S.R. and China.

Kissinger's first diplomatic stop, in Bangkok, was partly a courtesy call upon a U.S. ally, Thailand's Premier Thanom Kittikachorn. But it also gave Kissinger and his top traveling companion, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William H. Sullivan (see box), a chance to discuss the entire Indochina situation with the U.S. ambassadors to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and South Viet Nam.

As Kissinger flew into Vientiane, Laos, cease-fire negotiations between Premier Souvanna Phouma and the Communist-dominated Pathet Lao were already well advanced. The chief difficulty has been the Communist insistence that any military truce be coupled with political concessions. A similar position had hampered the set tlement in Viet Nam until Hanoi finally agreed to separate those issues. If a similar deal can be struck in Laos -- and Kissinger was pressing for it -- a ceasefire could come as early as this week. In anticipation of that, the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops made last-minute pushes to grab more territory--and the U.S. responded with repeated raids by B-52s and fighter-bombers.

At week's end Kissinger arrived in Hanoi--dramatically demonstrating how suddenly the scenes can shift in contemporary diplomacy. Here was one of the chief architects of the U.S. bombing and mining policy being given a welcome in the capital of what had so recently been a bitter enemy. Kissinger was making his first visit to Hanoi at the invitation of his Paris antagonist, Le Due Tho. In three days of intensive talks, he was to meet Le Duan, the Communist Party leader, and Premier Pham Van Dong. The North Vietnamese had sought this visit with some urgency, possibly as a means of worrying South Viet Nam's President Nguyen Van Thieu. Hanoi can also use any rapprochement with Washington to give it more flexibility in dealing with both Moscow and Peking.

More specifically, Kissinger was expected to explore the principles governing whatever aid the U.S. will offer to help rebuild North Viet Nam. No dollar figures are likely to be discussed yet, but the North Vietnamese are known to want unrestricted aid from the U.S., while Washington will want the money designated for specific projects and preferably channeled through a multi-nation agency. Kissinger will have a bargaining point in the recent signs of i congressional resistance to any aid to Hanoi at all -- a resistance that undoubtedly will grow if there is any major 1 Communist failure to carry out the 1 truce settlement.

Kissinger also will push Hanoi for a fuller accounting of missing U.S. sol diers who have not appeared on Communist lists of P.O.W.s. Hanoi, on the other hand, may ask pointed questions about the role and numbers of civilian technicians and advisers (between 5,000 and 6,000) whom the U.S. expects to keep in South Viet Nam. If these talks go well, there may be more high-level trips by officials of the two nations, as well as a slow expansion of exchange visits by technicians, scholars, journal ists and scientists.

After resting briefly in Hong Kong, Kissinger will spend four days in equally delicate discussions in Peking. These talks, too, will be important in providing a new spirit for the relationship begun by President Nixon, Kissinger and China's Premier Chou En-lai last year. The Viet Nam War always cloud ed those earlier meetings and Washing ton is anxious to see what new progress can be made now that the war is ending. One topic likely to be discussed is the amount of military aid that China intends to give Hanoi; Nixon has appealed for "restraint" by both China and Russia. The touchy issue of U.S. ties with Taiwan will also emerge, but a U.S. official notes that Peking's lead ers have been "more relaxed recently on that point. They feel time is on their side."

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